Vancouver —
The bought-deal private placement is priced at $2.75 per share.
Tenke has given the underwriters, GMP Securities, Dundee Securities and Pacific International Securities, an option to buy an additional 1 million shares at the same price, which could raise the financing to $11 million.
Situated in San Juan province, Vicuna is now undergoing a 1,200-to-1,500-metre program of reverse-circulation drilling. Four holes are being sunk to a depth of 250-420 metres at the Filo del Sol target.
Previous exploration focused on high-sulphidation epithermal gold targets, which were identified through mapping, chip sampling, geochemistry and geophysics. Drilling of these targets resulted in several highly anomalous gold, silver and copper intercepts with mineralization open at depth.
Hole 4 intersected 118 metres averaging 0.51% copper, 81 grams silver and 0.38 gram gold per tonne starting at a down-hole depth of 162 metres. The intercept included a higher-grade section of 44 metres averaging 0.55% copper, 192 grams silver and 0.39 gram gold starting at a down-hole depth of 202 metres. The last 10 metres of the hole averaged 0.92% copper, 5 grams silver and 0.67 gram gold.
Hole 5 cut 168 metres of 0.86% copper, 33 grams silver and 0.23 gram gold starting at 96 metres down-hole. The intercept included a 34-metre section of 0.85% copper, 138 grams silver and 0.33 gram gold starting at 132 metres down-hole.
Further work spurred Tenke to look more closely at the district-wide porphyry-epithermal transitions. The company identified several additional epithermal anomalies along the margins of porphyry intrusives, which suggest the Vicuna project is part of a larger, regional, multi-porphyry system.
In addition to Vicuna, Tenke will drill the adjacent Josemaria copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry target. Both deposits are part of the extension of the Maricunga mineralized belt, which originates in Chile.
The Josemaria porphyry system was discovered during a geophysical, sampling and trenching program on the Lirio and adjoining Batidero properties. The work expanded known geochemical anomalies and outlined a 3-by-2-km target zone. The target was further defined by magnetic and induced-polarization geophysics, as well as trenching.
The Josemaria target is ovoid and outlined by a talus copper-gold-molybdenum anomaly. Limited outcrops of a dioritic-tonalitic porphyry with potassic alteration are surrounded by a phyllic-argillic zone of alteration that grades into extensive zones of propylitic alteration.
Geophysical surveys have defined a magnetic core that measures 1,000 by 500 metres, enveloped by resistive, non-magnetic haloes. This magnetic zone corresponds with the porphyry and intense biotite and potassium feldspar alteration.
Trenching has returned some encouraging values, including the following:
— Trench 1 — 109 metres averaging 0.36 gram gold and 0.23% copper, including a 69-metre section of 0.41 gram gold and 58.2 metres averaging 0.34% copper.
— Trench 2 — 148.5 metres averaging 0.17 gram gold and 0.17% copper.
— Trench 6 — 66 metres grading 0.39 gram gold and 0.33% copper plus isolated samples that returned up to 0.6 gram gold and 0.9% copper.
The controlling factor of the copper and gold mineralization seems to be the intensity of potassic alteration, as well as the intensity of quartz veinlets and stockwork arrays.
Tenke believes the target represents an overprint of an epithermal system on top of a porphyry system. Several sections in trench 6 displayed hairline quartz veins containing varied amounts of chalcopyrite.
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